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United Airlines has told its customers “leggings are welcome,” after it found itself caught in a social media storm after refusing to allow two teenage girls to board their flight because they were wearing leggings.

The American carrier, which is one of the biggest airlines in the world, was accused of sexism and of policing women’s dress after it stopped the two girls from flying from Denver to Minneapolis on Sunday.

Their father, wearing shorts, and a girl aged around 10, travelling with them, were allowed to board – but only when she had put a dress on over her leggings.

But United on Monday insisted they were simply enforcing an existing policy on dress codes for people, such as the girls, travelling on “buddy passes” – discounted travel for friends and family of employees.

1) A @united gate agent isn't letting girls in leggings get on flight from Denver to Minneapolis because spandex is not allowed?

"We care about the way we present ourselves to you, our customers, as we believe that is part of the experience on board our flights,” the company said in a statement. "One of the benefits of working for an airline is that our employees are able to travel the world. Even better, they can extend this privilege to a select number of what we call 'pass riders'.

"These are relatives or friends who also receive the benefit of free or heavily discounted air travel – on our airline as well as on airlines around the world where we have mutual agreements in place for employees and pass riders.

"When taking advantage of this benefit, all employees and pass riders are considered representatives of United. And like most companies, we have a dress code that we ask employees and pass riders to follow.

@levarburton Hi LeVar, while we value your concern, please note that the customer this morning was a United pass traveler (1/2)

"The passengers this morning were United pass riders and not in compliance with our dress code for company benefit travel. We regularly remind our employees that when they place a family member or friend on a flight for free as a standby passenger, they need to follow our dress code.

"To our regular customers, your leggings are welcome."

Chrissy Teigan, the model, said that she had previously flown on the airline without any trousers – just a top, worn as a dress. “Next time I will wear only jeans and a scarf,” she joked.

I have flown united before with literally no pants on. Just a top as a dress. Next time I will wear only jeans and a scarf.

Shannon Watts, an anti-gun activist with 34,000 Twitter followers, was the source of the anger – having witnessed the incident and tweeted about it. On Twitter, many began discussing airline travel dress codes.

United had earlier responded to Ms Watts criticism of sexism, saying: “We appreciate you being our eyes and ears. The customers this morning were United pass travellers.

“There is a dress code for pass travellers as they are representing UA when they fly.”